Last Wednesday, the multiplayer expansion for Final Fantasy XV called Comrades launched. It made me put this column on hold, so I could you provide you with detailed impressions as quickly as possible. If you want to know what to expect from Comrades, you can find my thoughts right here. Spoiler alert: I'm having a lot more fun with it than I anticipated. I've reveled in creating my own avatar, buying new weapons and clothing, and beating the hell out of iconic monsters from the series, from Malboros to Treants. One feature I'm happy Square Enix brought over from the main game is Prompto's fun photography. After every mission, I go check my photos to see my character's skills in action – for better or worse. Therefore, I thought it would be fun to save some of my best and worst moments in picture form, allowing you more of a glimpse into my journey. Consider this a Grind Time bonus for waiting for my impressions.

This is my avatar. Honestly, nothing feels more awesome than transporting a version of yourself into a Final Fantasy game.

To get my bearings, I had to practice on a giant Cactuar dummy. I've never felt so cool.

After getting a delay, Final Fantasy XV’s multiplayer expansion Comrades finally launched last week. The long-awaited mode is included for those who purchased Final Fantasy XV's season pass, or can be purchased separately for $19.99. For a little context, Comrades allows you to create your own avatar and be a member of the Kingsglaive, the Lucian royal family's special forces unit. The expansion covers the missing 10 years of time near the end of the main story, so I recommend you play through Final Fantasy XV before touching it. However, if you don’t care about the story, you can still enjoy this new mode. After playing close to 20 hours of Comrades, I’ve learned the ins and outs pretty well. Here are my extensive impressions, which should help you decide if Comrades is a good fit for you.

The Xbox One X and PS4 Pro are both out, but this is not the beginning of the next generation of home systems from Sony or Microsoft. Instead, we're four years into the life of the PS4 and Xbox One, meaning we're only halfway there. Sports franchises should be on the ascent, but instead it feels like we're adrift. Modes have stagnated, fanbases have become jaded, and although many sports series offer a solid gameplay experience, I get the feeling this generation of sports titles has already plateaued.

Companies have settled into the practice of focusing on post-launch monetization whether that's Ultimate Team, MyPlayer, MyClub, Diamond Dynasty or whatever. Along with this is the rise of the esports scene through online and in-person competitions. While these forms have indeed given players a reason to return to these titles after the initial release luster has worn off – and brought extra revenue – I think they've made the publishers comfortable with the status quo. New systems are always a convenient jumping-off point for new innovations, but if that point is three to four years away, sports fans can't afford to just coast there.

Trinket Games' new PC and Switch game Battle Chef Brigade is a bizarre gumbo of Iron Chef-style cooking, combined with stylish-action combat, match-three puzzling, and a shake or two of Harry Potter. Sounds crazy, right? You're not wrong! Join Leo Vader and me as Reiner takes us on a tour of this oddball experience.

Surprisingly enough, the ingredients seem to blend together nicely. At least, Reiner seems to be in love with it during his early hours with the game.Check out our latest episode of New Gameplay Today and see for yourself if this is a dish you'd be... willing to... eat? Look, I think I've gotten enough mileage out of this cooking thing, all right?

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus has proven to be one of the most powerful and divisive, games of the year thanks to its balance of somber and zany. In this episode of Spoiled, myself and fellow editors Matt Bertz, Kimberely Wallace, and Suriel Vazquez talk about what we thought of the game's heaviest moments, its gunplay, and how everything comes together in this Nazi-killing machine with a heart of gold.

Obviously there are heavy spoilers head for this discussion, as we chat about the entire game, so don't watch if you haven't finished it or care about having the game spoiled for you.

Now that Replay: Civil War has come and gone, this week we have a very refreshing return to Replay's roots. One game, one controller, one joke (or more). In today's case, the game is Singularity, the controller is Xbox 360, and the joke is about eggs.

Andrew Reiner, Jeff Cork, Kyle Hilliard and I blasted through the first hour of the game and couldn't turn it off. It's a fascinating, one-of-a-kind sci-fi story and I think this episode's worth a look if you missed out on it.

With several months still out from its 1st anniversary of announcement and even more from its release, the Nintendo Switch has had a strong freshman year. New juggernauts like The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild and Super Mario Odyssey have graced the system along with a number of ports and remasters. Within the past week three third-party ports were released on the system: Skyrim, L.A. Noire, and DOOM. While these three ports have varying degrees of quality, all three of them have proven that the device is a promising console for turning old favorites into portable games.

With that in mind we've taken a look back at our favorites of last and current generation, and picked out ten series we'd love to see on the Switch.

One of my favorite things about the board-game landscape is its ability to tackle such a broad and eclectic mix of topics, genres, and themes. I’m fascinated by the way that designers, artists, and graphic designers work together to create abstractions of a complex topic, or emulate an unusual set of actions or experiences. Case in point: Ex Libris. In this curious game, players control aspiring librarians in a fantasy town, competing through their growing collection of books to become the grand librarian who holds the finest set of monster manuals, fantastical fictions, corrupted codices, and other strange tomes.

So, yeah. It’s a ridiculous concept, and that’s its greatest charm. Ex Libris is a game about organization and thinking ahead. It’s about loving books, and seeing things put in their proper place. It’s about strange fantasy creatures like gnomes, golems, and gelatinous cubes who serve as your assistants and scour the whimsical magical village in search of new books. And in the mix of all that weirdness, Ex Libris is a game of critical thinking with an array of paths to victory a player must consider.

We will have a full review for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim soon, but in the meantime, you can watch this video to see the game in action, and learn a thing or three about how best to fight in the game, and probably real life.

Combat is much more physical and visceral and other adjectives that inspire intensity, when you play Skyrim in VR. Simply pressing a button isn't enough to swing a sword or fire off an arrow with pinpoint accuracy. You have to use your arms and surprisingly, the Move controller's wrist straps – if you're playing the game right.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Customize

Jun 7, 2017Updates and bug fixes OTW.

Announcement

Jun 7, 2017Updates and bug fixes OTW.

Options

Hiding images will make the site load faster if you are on a slow connection.

Hiding videos will make the site load faster and appear more responsive on older and slower devices.

Hide videos

Hide images

Customize Feed

By default TGP shows you news articles from a selected subset of the available sources.

You can also pick and choose from the available sources to customize your feed. Simply check all the sources you want to see from the list below and click save.

Click on the name of a source below to view news articles from them, without adding it to your personal list